The following is a tabulation of some prior art that presently appears relevant:
U.S. PatentsPatent NumberIssue DatePatentee5,480,076Jan. 2, 1996Siegel/Ganaja8,235,261Aug. 7, 2012Park/Kim8,459,514Jun. 11, 2013Lagzdins8,517,232Aug. 27, 2013Geltzer/Ciaglia
Conventional clothes hangers are generally designed with a center section having rigid arms that extend outward and are angled downward from the center section. Projecting upwardly from the center section is a suspension hook that allows the hanger to be hung from a horizontal pole or other protuberance. The conventional clothes hangers are suited for hanging most garments that have a large neck opening such as on front opening coats and shirts. However, when a narrow necked garment, such as a tee shirt, pullover, buttoned down shirt, or turtleneck sweater, is to be hung on a conventional clothes hanger, it is necessary to insert the hanger up through the bottom opening of the lower portion of the garment and into the garment's shoulder section to prevent the stretching of the collar area. In addition to conventional clothes hangers, the disclosed prior art also discloses several designs of retractable clothes hangers that have rigid arms that retract upwardly or downwardly. However, the disclosed invention differentiates itself from the disclosed prior art as it is the first type of retractable hanger that uses a turning knob that when rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise causes its hanger arms to move to an up position or down position.
The disclosed retractable arms clothes hanger is designed to allow it to be easily inserted into and removed from the neck opening of a tee shirt, pullover, buttoned down shirt, or turtleneck sweater when its hanger arms are retracted in the down position. Once inserted, the turning knob of the retractable arms clothes hanger can be rotated so its arms can be extended into their rigid, upwardly extended position thereby preventing unnecessary garment stretching. By rotating the turning knob in the opposite direction, the arms of the retractable arms clothes hanger can be retracted back to its down position. The retractable arms clothes hanger with its arms in the down position can be easily and conveniently stored when not in use, unlike conventional clothes hangers that take up more space and get easily tangled. Not all garments have the same shoulder angle, so the arms of the retractable arms clothes hanger can be fully adjusted to correspond to the proper angle of any type of garment.